I've spent some time in Randal Booth's Koine Greek material but I am literally only just beginning to learn Biblical Hebrew (I am practicing reading/writing the letters today).

I am not sure if there are major pronunciation questions that would influence the answer to this question, if so, please let me know, but I am wondering if there is a good place to get a recording of Genesis 1 and Jonah 1? I am keen to do some memorisation work, in preparation for next semester in seminary.

Yes, Jonah 1 is recorded in Living Biblical Hebrew: Introduction Part One (א), and Genesis 1 is recorded in Living Biblical Hebrew: Selected Readings with 500 Friends (ג). These are both excellent products for internalizing biblical Hebrew. (And no, I have no affiliation with the BLC, just a satisfied customer. )

I am not sure if there are major pronunciation questions that would influence the answer to this question, if so, please let me know, but I am wondering if there is a good place to get a recording of Genesis 1 and Jonah 1? I am keen to do some memorisation work, in preparation for next semester in seminary.

Thanks!

I have nothing against you learning according to medieval pronunciation, which is what any recording you will find will be in. In fact, it will be good to learn it that way, because that’s how your professors will pronounce it, that’s how it will be pronounced whenever you discuss Hebrew outside of class, even in international conferences. That’s how I originally learned Hebrew.

All I want to mention here is that the pronunciation you’ll hear is medieval, not Biblical. Biblical Hebrew pronunciation has been lost. We have a few clues, too few to make a reconstruction. One word we have is lion, medieval pronunciation “lavi”, ancient pronunciation “labaya”. Jerusalem as late as the first century was still pronounced as “Yerosoluma” in backwards Galilee. Very ancient transliteration had the name Japheth come out as “Yupeter”. There are a very few other examples, but as I wrote above, the examples we have are far too few to reconstruct Biblical era pronunciation.

So, go ahead, learn the modern pronunciation. Just don’t make the mistake to assume that the pronunciation that you learn is Biblical, because it isn’t.